If your school district is similar to ours or home school situation, your kids are home for the next few weeks. Some colleges are closing their doors and moving online only until the end of semester. Currently, the grocery store shelves are out of necessities like toilet paper, fresh meat and frozen vegetables here. In order to stretch what we do have here at home, I have planned to list some recipes that will stretch the food you have. This is all new territory and I think I would rather stretch what I do have, and if the situation changes – Great! If not, at least we tried what we could. We are all just trying our best here. No one is alive from the last pandemic to tell us what to do – although if you want to read about that I just finished “More Deadly Than War” by Kenneth Davis which was an excellent and quick read.

One, I am posting a cheap and delicious dessert to make your indoor days special. This recipe was created for a Kids Cooking Class grades 5-8th grade, so I want to offer it as a tasty item we have repeatedly made, and a way to teach kids how to cook. I think teaching kids how to cook is one of the most important things I can teach them. Why? Because I want my kids to have the freedom to do what they want, pursue a career in whatever field they choose, and not have to spend time worrying or thinking about how to do something as simple as cooking. My second reason is that it creates healthy habits!

Two, listed below are all of my meal ideas from Whisk Together that will stretch your dollars and stretch what you do have. Chicken breast in particular has been gone all week, so I posted that in a separate list.

Baked Chocolate Pudding

Warm and chocolaty dessert that is best served warm. It can also be cooked ahead of time and reheated.

Servings: 6

Ingredients

4ouncessemisweet baking chocolate or chocolate chips

2tbspbutter

1/2cupsugar

1/4cupunsweetened cocoa powder

1tbspflour

1/4tspsalt

2eggs, slightly beaten

1cupmilk

1tspvanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place a baking sheet on the counter. Place 6 ramekins that are at least 4 ounces in size on the sheet. You could use glass canning jars or regular ramekins or small bowls that are oven safe.

In a large glass bowl, add the chocolate (chopped up or in chips) and butter. Cook this in the microwave for 2 minutes at 50% power. Whisk Together! It should be smooth.

In a small bowl, add the sugar, cocoa powder, flour and salt. Whisk Together! Gradually, add this mixture to the melted chocolate mixture.

Now, we will learn how to TEMPER the eggs. This is important when adding any raw eggs to a hot or warm mixture. The sugar mixture should bring down the temperature, however, this is a great teaching moment to add a little of the warm chocolate mixture to the eggs. Whisk Together! Add a little more warm mixture to the eggs. Now the eggs are warmer, you can add them to the chocolate mixture. Add the milk and vanilla as well.

Portion the chocolate batter into the ramekins. Bake 20 minutes. The top should NOT be jiggly.